Secret toll-hike plan draws fresh criticism of Christie, Cuomo

A day before Port Authority commissioners were set to vote on an immediate $4 toll increase in 2011, the governors of New Jersey and New York said in a joint statement that they would support a lower toll hike.

Governor Christie, who has been attempting to move past the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal, is now confronting new allegations that his top appointees at the Port Authority proposed a series of inflated toll hikes in 2011 designed to make the governors of both states look good when they opposed them.

An article published in The Record on Sunday, which was based on interviews with eight people involved with the Port Authority and New Jersey politics, suggests that Christie aides David Wildstein and Bill Baroni stage-managed the Port Authority’s toll hike proposal to the advantage of Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Wildstein and Baroni resigned from the agency amid the lane closure scandal.

One source said Christie knew all about the plan — and scored points with voters when he opposed the bloated toll hike and blasted the Port Authority for fiscal mismanagement.

“I said, ‘You’re kidding me, right?’ and they said ‘no,’ ” Christie told the press of his reaction three days after the proposal was introduced in August 2011. “This is, unfortunately, a testimony to the mismanagement of the Port for years. We shouldn’t have to be in this kind of situation.”

Another part of the plan was an attempt to suppress commuter outrage at a proposal that would have immediately raised tolls by $4 in 2011, and subsequently added $2 more to push E-ZPass lanes to $14 by 2014. The Port Authority scheduled its public hearings in hard-to-find, out-of-the-way places — during rush hour, when it was most difficult for citizens to attend. All eight hearings were scheduled on the same day.

The political intrigue surrounding the Port Authority toll increase predates the lane closure scandal. The toll hikes were the original impetus for the state Assembly Transportation Committee to start its investigation into the Port Authority, but the evolving lane closure scandal has gotten key people in and around the agency talking — to both investigators and reporters.

Christie’s office declined to comment on Sunday, as did Cuomo’s.

“Both Governor Christie and Governor Cuomo have said a great deal to the public they are supposed to be representing by their complete silence,” said Sen. Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck. “They have been complicit in the lack of appropriate business procedures, transparency and lack of accountability that seems rampant in the top echelon of the New York and New Jersey Port Authority. They both have much to answer for to the people whose interests they are supposed to represent.”

Weinberg, who was in Israel on Sunday as part of a delegation, said the toll increases were enacted without any public input. The ensuing outrage prompted the Legislature to adopt a bill to create more transparency within the Port Authority, but it was vetoed by Christie.

“This calls into question whether the toll hikes were necessary,” said Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle, D-Englewood. “If not, they should be rolled back. Commuters shouldn’t have to pay for political games.”

Sen. Bob Gordon, D-Fair Lawn, and Huttle released a statement calling the allegations “disturbing” and said they were evidence of the need for greater transparency and accountability at the Port Authority.

“If these assertions are true, the public was taken for a ride in more ways than one,” Gordon said. “When we are asking the public to pay more to cross bridges and tunnels, we should treat them with respect and ensure they have a voice. Today’s reports suggest that scoring political points was more important than protecting the public’s interest. Clearly, greater oversight, and possibly independent monitoring, of the authority is needed.”

The first toll increase proposed by the Port Authority in August 2011 would have increased E-ZPass fares at the George Washington Bridge and other crossings to $14 by 2014 — a potential $6 hit that had motorists seething and provided Christie with the opportunity to blast the Port Authority for fiscal mismanagement.

Christie and Cuomo both opposed the steep increases, and the Port Authority later adopted a series of more modest increases that are now in effect. But it appears that much of the public posturing was orchestrated for the greatest political effect by Wildstein and Baroni, in a plan that was hatched in a “war room” they set up on the 15th floor of the Port Authority office in Manhattan in the spring of 2011.

Eight people familiar with the operation were interviewed by The Record, and they cast doubt on claims that the governors had no prior knowledge of the toll-increase proposal and suggested that it was intentionally inflated. The sources, each with independent knowledge of the events that took place, were interviewed separately.

Records show that the two governors met for dinner at the Beacon Restaurant in Manhattan on July 29, 2011, one week before a proposal to raise the tolls was released. Christie has said that he didn’t know the magnitude of the Port Authority proposal until after the dinner.

But a knowledgeable source said that only days later, on Aug. 3, Christie held a meeting in his office with about five top advisers, including former state Attorney General and Port Authority Chairman David Samson, Baroni and Wildstein. According to the source, Christie instructed the Port Authority officials to float the immediate $4 increase, and that he and Cuomo would reduce it to $2.

Additionally, multiple sources told The Record that the governors always sign off on proposals to increase tolls before they go public. “Anything gets pre-cleared with Trenton and Albany,” the source said.

Toll increases usually take months to enact, but this one was put on the fast track. The Port Authority commissioners scheduled a vote for Aug. 19, 2011, just two weeks after the proposed toll increase was announced.

Baroni took command of the ensuing public relations campaign intended to smooth adoption. The Port Authority sent out 36 press releases in three days in support of the toll hike. Eight public hearings were scheduled — all held on the same day, Aug. 16.

To orchestrate support, Baroni and Wildstein gathered workers from Laborers’ International Union of North America to show up at the meetings in orange T-shirts that said “Port Authority = Jobs.”

The vice president of the union is Ray Pocino. He is also a Port Authority commissioner.

The 2011 toll hikes were subsequently challenged in federal court by motorist’s advocacy group AAA-New York. In a lawsuit, AAA-New York argues that the toll increases violate the Commerce Clause Highway Act of 1987 that requires that all bridge and tunnel tolls be “just and reasonable.”

In its suit, AAA-New York argues that toll revenue will finance “cost overruns in the Port Authority’s speculative real estate development at the World Trade Center” instead of improving the agency’s transportation network.

The Port Authority is spending $11 billion on the World Trade Center project. The suit is still pending.

Cathleen Lewis, a spokeswoman for AAA-New Jersey Automobile Club, said reports of political games and manipulations further dampens the public’s trust. “There has been an erosion over many, many years,” she said. “This is sort of becoming the straw that broke the camel’s back.” The New Jersey Automobile Club is not party to the lawsuit.

Assemblyman John Wisniewski, D-Middlesex, speaking during a six-day legislative trip to Israel, said, “The story confirms what many of us have already assumed and suspected: that the outrage at the toll increase was manufactured and managed to arrive at the number they decided on in advance. Wisniewski, co-chairman of the joint legislative committee investigating the lane closures, said of the revelations, “What’s disturbing is the conduct of the Port Authority in how it organized the public hearings — it was a sham.”

Michael Phillis contributed to this article. Email: cowenr@northjersey.com and linhorst@northjersey.com